366 The Loom of Language
The Portuguese direct object forms of the third person have alterna-
tive forms lo~la~los-las for use after -R, -S, or -Z If the preceding pro-
noun is nos or vos, the latter drop the S
Dd-no-lo — he gives it to us
Da-vo-lo = he gives it to you
Thus the same rules for the position of two pronoun objects do not
apply to French on the one hand and Spanish or Italian on the other
(a) The Spanish and Italian direct object pronoun follows the indirect,
e g. no te lo dare = I shall not give it to you == non ti lo daw
This rule applies to statement, question, or command (request),
e g in Spanish corregidmelo, correct it for me
(£>) If the French indirect object is a pronoun of the first or second
person the same rule holds for a simple statement; eg je ne te
le donnerai pas = I shall not give you it
00 If the French indirect pronoun object is of the third person, it
follows the direct object, e g je le Im dirai = I shall tell him it
(d) The French direct object precedes the indirect one in a positive
command, and the indirect object has the stressed form, e g
corngez-h~moi = correct it for me
(e) If both Spanish pronoun objects are of the third person SE takes
the place of the indirect object which retains its usual place, e g
se lo dire = I shall tell him it
(/) Negative commands of afi four languages have the same word
order as statements
Our list of unstressed French pronouns should include two peculiar
forms which are troublesome These are en and y In colloquial French
the former refers to persons and thmgs\or propositions), whereas the
latter is generally used for things (and propositions) only. Both are
descendants of Latin adverbs of place, en from tnde (thence), y from
tfa (there) Both en and y may preserve this old locative meaning^ en
for in, to, from, etc, and y for here, there, thither, e g en province (in the
country), j *y serai (I shall be there) In Vulgar Latin tnde and ibi often
replaced the pronoun of the third person, e g si potis inde manducare,
i e 5 lit, if you can eat (from) it, adjice ibi ovum, i«e add an egg there
(= to it). The French often use the pronoun en where we say some or
any,, eg en avez-vous* (have you any?), or where we say of it, about it,
from it, e g j'en ai asses (I have enough of it), nous enparlerons (we shall
talk about it), tl en pourrait mounr (he might die of it). Also note En
voila une surprise! = what a surprise!
As pronouns equivalent to IT, en and y keep company with a special
class of verbs The French equivalents for some English verbs which
do not precede a preposition always go with de (of or from), e g se